WCC COMM 101 CHAPTER #8 TELEVISION LUTHER

1. Chapter 8
Television, Cable, and
Mobile Video

2. Television, Cable, and Mobile
Video
• Our textbook offers information about the
history and technology involved with
television, cable, and mobile video and is
covered in quiz material
• We’ll be spending our class time looking at
two examples of groundbreaking TV and
how it’s made and then talking about
examples of our own

3. Norman Lear-TV Pioneer
•Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer
and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as
All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a
Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Maude. As a
political activist, he founded the advocacy
organization People for the American Way in 1981
and has supported First Amendment rights and
progressive causes. Lear’s shows were known for
directly dealing with social and political issues of the
day. character design, and editing. Knowing about
the cultural history of TV enhances a viewer’s Media
Literacy.
•THE 70’s: TELEVISION GETS REAL

4. Impactful Television
• 50’s sitcom “I LOVE LUCY” was impactful in many ways:
• The first to use a 3-camera setup so they could shoot
angles and close-ups simultaneously. Traditional
sitcoms are still shot this way to this day.
• The first to have an inter-cultural couple as the stars
– Desi Arnaz was Cuban and the network didn’t want
him cast as her husband Ricky (even though he was
her real-life husband) because they feared viewers
would have difficulty accepting the Cuban Arnaz as
the husband of the all-American redhead.

5. Impactful Television
• 50’s sitcom “I LOVE LUCY” was impactful in many ways:
• I LOVE LUCY was one of the first sitcoms to feature
an on-screen pregnancy as part of the plot, but CBS
would not allow the use of the word “pregnant” so
“expecting” was used instead. Additionally, each
episode about Lucy’s pregnancy had to be reviewed
by a minister, priest and rabbi in order to ensure
that they weren’t offensive to the television
audience.
• The episode in which Lucy gives birth, "Lucy Goes to
the Hospital“, was watched by 44 million people,
more than any other television program up to that
time, with 71.7% of all American television sets
tuned in, topping the 67.7 rating for the presidential
inauguration coverage the following morning.

6. Impactful Television
• FIRST ON-SCREEN TOILET:
• 1957 – Leave it to Beaver (just the tank)
• FIRST LIVE 24-HOUR NEWS COVERAGE:
• 1963 - The assassination of President John F.
Kennedy
• FIRST BLACK ACTOR IN A STARRING ROLE:
• 1965 – Bill Cosby, I SPY
• FIRST PRIME-TIME ANIMATED SERIES:
• 1966 – The Flintstones
• FIRST TIME THE WORD “HELL” IS SPOKEN ON TV:
• 1967 – Star Trek “City on the Edge of Forever”

7. Impactful Television
• FIRST INTERRACIAL KISS:
• 1968 – Star Trek (Kirk & Uhura)
• FIRST REALITY TV SHOW:
• 1973: An American Family (PBS)
• FIRST TIME RAP/HIP-HOP IS ON TV:
• 1981 – American Bandstand; Sugar Hill Gang
performs “Rapper’s Delight”
• FIRST TIME A CHARACTER WITH DOWN
SYNDROME IS A MAJOR CHARACTER ON TV:
• 1989 – Life Goes On
• FIRST GAY/LESBIAN KISS ON TV:
• 1991 – L.A. LAW

8. Impactful Television
• 1990’s – TV brings the topic of oral sex into
people’s living rooms amidst coverage of the
Clinton-Lewinsky scandal
• 2003 – The invasion of Iraq involved
unprecedented U.S. media coverage, especially
cable news networks. The coverage itself became
a source of controversy, as media outlets were
accused of pro-war bias, reporters were casualties
of both Iraqi and American gunfire, and claims of
censorship and propaganda became widespread
• 2004 – The Super Bowl halftime show provides the
setting for Janet Jackson’s performance and her
bejeweled nipple

9. Impactful Television
• The impact of Television on culture was and is
magnified by several factors:
• The EXPOSURE of Television – for much of the
viewing audience, television provides their
formative exposure to cultures and societies
beyond their own.
• The EDUCATION of Television – for much of the
viewing audience, television provides the basis
for much of what we think and know about the
world and ourselves.
• TV = REPRESENTATION = REALITY

10. Study Focus
• Give one brief example of how Television has
been important in your own life and why;
consider television shows you loved,
television events you witnessed, the way
you’ve bonded with others over television,
how television changed your mind about
something, etc.

11. Making Television: South
Park

12. Making Television: South
Park
•6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park is a television
documentary film that details the production process
of the American adult animated sitcom South Park.
The film follows the show's hectic, rushed six-day
production schedule, in which a 22-minute episode is
completed just hours before its original air date. The
film covers various aspects of production, including
voice acting, animation, lip sync, communication with
standards and practices, character design, and
editing. Knowing what goes into TV production
enhances a viewer’s Media Literacy.